HS2: The transport schemes Sunak promised which are already built or cancelled
Rishi Sunak has been accused of announcing transport schemes that have already been built during his announcement of the scrapping of HS2.
In his speech to the Conservative Party conference on Wednesday, the prime minister announced a raft of projects that would be paid for by the £36bn saved from axing the rest of the high-speed rail project.
Sunak declared that he would “reinvest every single penny, £36bn, in hundreds of new transport projects in the North and the Midlands, across the country”.
This included the creation of what he named Network North, which involves improvements to road, rail and bus schemes.
But his pledge quickly came under the spotlight after some of the proposals appear to either already exist or have been cancelled before.
Here, Yahoo News UK outlines those schemes.
HS2 cancelled: Read more
Maps show changes to high-speed project after Rishi Sunak axes northern leg(Yahoo News)
HS2 cuts throw away once-in-a-generation opportunity, warns David Cameron (PA Media)
West Midlands mayor Andy Street announces decision over his future after HS2 U-turn (Birmingham World)
A1 upgrade
One of the announcements made by the government was the duelling of the A1 between Morpeth and Ellingham in the North East.
But the history of the duelling project was first mooted more than 30 years ago and locals have seen years of promises broken by successive governments.
Watch: Rishi Sunak criticised by former Tory prime ministers over HS2 decision
In 2010, David Cameron pledged to see the plan through if elected as prime minister – but the project then went through years of delays.
Four years later, Cameron unveiled the £290m proposal, saying the upgrade was “a crucial part of our long-term economic plan for the North of England”.
There were more successive delays and only last month the government said it would delay the decision for another nine months, sparking fury among residents in the North East.
Sunak’s announcement appears to now row back on the delay to the decision made by his own government.
Nottingham Express Transit trams extension
Among the details for the Network North scheme is a Nottingham Express Transit trams extension to Clifton South.
The Department for Transport (DfT) wrote that £1.5bn in funding for the East Midlands “could include the potential to extend the Nottingham Tram system to serve Gedling and Clifton South”.
However, many residents in the area were quick to point out on X, formerly Twitter, that this extension and stop already exists – and has done since 2015.
Tory MP Ben Bradley, who is also the leader of Nottingham County Council, attempted to clear up the confusion.
He told the BBC that the announcement refers to an extension beyond Clifton to Ratcliffe-on-Soar and East Midlands Airport.
He said it was a case of “Westminster not being quite involved in the detail”.
Metrolink line to Manchester Airport extension
In the North West, the government pledged £4bn that would “improve connectivity” – including a scheme to extend the Manchester Metrolink line to Manchester Airport.
However, this line already exists, having opened in November 2014.
Some residents mocked the announcement on X, saying that the promise of an existing link is “a promise the Tories can deliver”.
Following the publication of the report, the DfT said that the Metrolink extension would be to Terminal Two of the airport, rather than the existing line to Terminal One.
Leamside railway line
On Thursday, the government reportedly made a U-turn on its pledge to reopen the Leamside railway line in the North East, just 24 hours after it was included among its transport proposals.
The line, which runs from Pelaw in Gateshead to Tursdale in County Durham, was part of the Network North plan.
However, ChronicleLive reported that the Leamside reopening had been removed from the Network North website.
It reported that roads minister Richard Holden said the government was merely "committed to looking into" the Leamside line.
